Hello Neighbor!   Happy New Year! 

‍     Do you have plans to make things better for your family, your city, and your country this year? Here’s wishing you a successful year!

‍      You are probably sick of politics in our country right now. Doesn’t it seem like no matter who you vote for, the politicians don’t listen to the voters?

‍       Are you ever in the dark about local candidates when you go to vote? Any kind of local news is hard enough to find, but if you are a right-leaning voter, local news from that perspective just is not available out there. Conservative viewpoints are ignored or outright censored by almost all of the media. There are good sites that give you national news, but good information is very scarce on local politics, which often affects you the most. This site is a monthly newsletter to help voters hear the Right side of local news—the side the media will never tell you. 

‍      We are looking for great America First Candidates who feel called to run for office to rescue our city, our schools, & our country from socialist ideology. Jacomo News and the Jackson County Republican Committee will help you! Email us at editor@jacomonews.org —  [fyi - The Fort Osage School Board has 3 openings in April 2023, and openings for Independence City Council and Independence School Board are coming in 2024.]

In our monthly newsletters we plan to have . . . 

• A Report from Independence city council meetings (see below)
• A Report from school board meetings — Independence School District (The board voted to go to a 4-day week next Fall.), Fort Osage School Dist (the board will have 3 openings in April this year.) If you have more information about these Board meetings, please let us know. 
• A Report from the MO State Legislature — Bills that are before the House/Senate and what you should know about them. 
• A Report on election results or on upcoming election candidates. We will let you know who is running and what they stand for.
• A Report on happenings around Independence. If you have something to report on anything happening in our township, let us know at editor@jacomonews.org  Is there a conservative business that we can all support? Let us know.
• Upcoming events in our township. We will depend on our readers to keep us informed about what events are upcoming in our area. Let us know about them and we’ll spread the word. 
• Action Alerts — These need a quick response to help make things better for the citizens of our community. 
• What would you like to know about? We’ll try to find the answer for you. 

We will publish a new edition every month. Let us know if you would like to get an email reminder when it is available. And let others know about it. — editor@jacomonews.org 

Let’s work together to keep each other informed about local issues in Independence and Blue township. 

Independence City Council Report

Last night's Independence city council Meeting (Jan 3rd) was a win-win! We get to keep our favorite trash services and prayer stays a part of our regular council meetings.The council had been discussing whether to remove prayer from Council meetings but decided to let prayer stand. A win for us! They also had been discussing giving a contract to one trash service company, which might have cut out Ted's Trash, a local company, but in the meeting this was also defeated.

We, The Jackson County Republican Committee, Blue Township Team is working for you!

Thanks to all the citizens who showed up at the meeting to have their voices heard!

Here are some highlights from Colleen Huff, former Mayoral candidate who spoke on behalf of these two issues—prayer and Ted's Trash Service!: Tonight, was one of the best council meetings I’ve ever been a part of. We got everything we asked for and more! Here’s a snippet of the meeting: It was a win for Ted's Trash Service ✅ and a win for prayer, ✅ as Hobart assured everyone that prayer would not be removed. Additionally, the proposed changes to the Policies and Procedures had severe backlash and I do not foresee any of them passing. These meetings are videoed for transparency. A great night for Independence!

From Ted’s Trash Service: We wanted to give a huge thank you to all of our customers that called, emailed, and let your voice be heard that this city should let you keep your right to choose your trash hauler.  We are humbled by the outpouring support that we've received. Tonight, was a big win for not only us, but for our community and other small local businesses. We look forward to servicing our community for many more years to come. —The Ted's Trash Family

‍      Let Mayor Rory Rowland know your opinions. Also contact councilman Jared Fears and Zach Walker (City Manager). 

‍      Are you a conservative who would like to run for City Council in 2024? Let us know. We will help you. editor@jacomonews.org

Statehouse Report from Jefferson City

• Our State senator for Blue & Ft. Osage Townships is John Rizzo-D (map of Senate District 11). Rizzo will term out in 2024 and Joe Nicola-R (a conservative) plans to run for that seat.
• Our State House representatives for Independence are: Robert Sauls-D (Dist 21) – for eastern Blue & Ft. Osage Townships is Aaron McMullen-R (Dist 20, just elected, replacing Bill Kidd-R) – and for western Independence are Ingrid Burnett-D (Dist 19), and Yolanda Young-D (Dist 22).
• What should be the goals for the Missouri Statehouse this year/ We have twice as many Republicans in the Missouri Statehouse as Democrats. We will keep you informed so you can let them know what you think.
• E.R.I.C. needs to leave Missouri (click for hyperlink to article) — We can’t win elections if we continue to allow corrupt election groups like ERIC (Electronic Registration Information Center), which is also in Missouri, to pretend to push fair elections. We need to let all our state reps know about this and get Missouri out of it! Please read the article. The state gives ERIC our information. ERIC registers people to vote, but doesn’t take people off the rolls, giving unscrupulous poll workers the ability to fill in ballots. Let your state reps know that we can’t have fair and transparent elections in Missouri with these outside entanglements. Contact your state reps because they don’t seem to care about this. 
• Missouri legislator proposes five ESA bills, including universal school choice bill — The school scholarship bill our State houses passed last year has some big holes in it. (Did you even know about it?) This article tells what these are and how our reps hope to fix them. These bills are all pro-student, pro-parent. 
• Closed Primaries. Every year, State Rep Dan Stacy (Blue Springs) tries to get a bill (HB31) passed that will allow Missourians to register with a political party. Right now, anyone can vote in either primary. That may seem fine at first, but looking closer, it allows people from one party to cross over and vote in a different primary and thus sometimes affect who becomes the candidate for that party. In some states in this last election, Democrats voted in the Republican primary to try to get a candidate that they thought they could easily beat. And it worked several times! But shouldn’t a party and the members of that party have the right to choose who will run for office under their party banner? We need “closed” primaries in Missouri, but too many RINOs in Jefferson City block this bill every year. Let your state senator and representative know what you think. 

What is the purpose of Government?

‍      Our 1776 Declaration of Independence gave us the rights of “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  These rights come from God not from the Government. 

‍      In 1789 Lafayette wrote the “French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen” (with help from Thomas Jefferson). In it he said that the job of government was to secure the rights of men, which were, “liberty, property, and security.” A little later during the French Revolution they added a 4th “right”: equality.  This destructive concept of equality is the basis of Socialism. 

‍      The American idea that all men are created equal is not the same as saying the government’s purpose is to guarantee “equality.” It eventually means that there can be no personal property if there is to be equality (or “equity” as we say today). Socialism means that, “under the guise of morality and the pursuit of a more equitable society, it is permissible to act immorally, to steal from one group of people to enrich another.” (summary from the excellent new book: Just Thinking about the State, by Harrison & Walker)

Democrats Race to the Left

In the last 10 years, working class voters have swung to the Republicans by 30 points. The Democrat leadership knows this is a problem, but they can’t address it because their elitist-leftist base loves marxist policies and doesn’t like the working class. They consider the working-class voter to be uneducated, quasi-Nazis, anti-LGBT, racists, etc.  

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2022/12/24/democrats-latest-problem-nonwhite-working-class-voters-n2617482

Republicans are the only ones listening to working-class voters. 

Email us at - editor@jacomonews.org - and we will email you our printable flyer - “Are Democrats Still the Good Guys?” that you can read and share with others. 

We want to hear from you! 

• We want to be the party that listens to and responds to the voters. So, please let us know what issues you are concerned about in Blue Township (Independence, Sugar Creek, River Bend, Atherton, and rural areas). We will report back in the next newsletter what your concerns are. 
• Let us know if you have information about Blue Township government that our readers need to know. 
• If you know of someone else who might like to receive this newsletter, let us know – editor@jacomonews.org

National News 

After all the depressing news of the last 2 years, here is an encouraging article by Gen. Michael Flynn, “Don’t Fear, Embrace What’s Coming in 2023 and Beyond.” He tells us the good news that people are getting involved in their children’s education, going to school board meetings and city council meetings, and holding their elected officials accountable to the people. These are all good. 

On Dec 22nd 18 Republican Senators voted for the huge omnibus bill that will stiff Americans for $1.7 trillion and will make inflation worse. Of course they always put a few good things in these bills, such as support for the military, but it is packed full of billions of dollars of left-wing pork—some things no Republican should ever vote for. And not a single dollar to protect our border! These senators were the usual establishment Republicans, including Missouri’s Roy Blunt, and all of the Democrats. 

A Fox News poll out in December says that 44% of Americans believe Joe Biden is doing a good job. Even though . . . 

• Our border is letting in millions of immigrants, along with fentanyl, drug dealers, and criminals.
• The economy is in shambles: inflation up, interest rates up, supply chain is sketchy. The war on gas and coal has caused inflation because everything is shipped by truck or train. (And by the way, Joe Biden did NOT create 10 million new jobs. These were the jobs that came back after the COVID shut down.)
• Crime is outrageous. Criminals all over our country are being let out of jail to commit crimes again. This will continue until our cities stop voting for Democrats. They care more for the criminals than for the victims.
• Democrats scream about “losing our democracy” while they take away the rights our democracy has given us. Ever notice how one Leftist can complain about a Christmas nativity scene on public property and they get their way. But democracy is supposed to be rule by the majority.
• Free speech is totally gone in some instances (college campuses, big media, most of big tech, big corporations, government agencies). People everywhere are being punished and “cancelled” for speaking their beliefs.
• The new “Respect for Marriage Act” that Democrats have pushed through Congress is not really about marriage. It’s about persecution of Christians. It will cause Christian churches, organizations, colleges, hospitals, and adoption agencies to be persecuted for their faith. Just like Christian bakers, florists, and other wedding providers have been attacked by the Left, now it will increase because they have a new law to use as a weapon. 
• Many Americans no longer trust our voting system. Free, fair, and transparent elections are a thing of the past in many states. Some right-leaning voters have no idea of the long list of corrupt means the Democrats are using to win elections. We need to elect honest county clerks and secretaries of state across the nation. Here’s what you can do to help prevent election fraud. 
• The Green New Deal is a job killer. Yes, we should plant trees and use regenerative agriculture to restore degraded land and deserts, but the Climate Change religion is a hoax that will take our prosperity away from us. Never forget this – coal and gas have given us prosperity. There is NO replacement for it; not now nor in the near future. When it’s gone, cold and poverty are the only possible results. 
• Our children are being indoctrinated and destroyed by socialist schools and by the Left’s sexual agenda.

. 

Independence City Hall

Love him or hate him, this is still true, and it’s why he didn’t pay much in taxes. He must be the first president (or politician) in modern history who lost wealth while in office.